Fashionista: Gibson in the present tense It’s been more than 10 years since he’s set a book anywhere but the present. Regardless, cyberpunk visionary William Gibson’s new novel still occupies top spots in multiple amazon.com science-fiction rankings this week.

Talking about fiction, fellatio and meddling editors with the only American essayist who uses "like" as punctuation. Editor's Note: This story originally appeared in the February 20, 1998 edition of the Boston Phoenix .

Jonathan Franzen and the Great American Novel This month, Jonathan Franzen became the first living American novelist in 10 years to make the cover of Time . His Freedom — out this Tuesday, and his first novel since 2001's National Book Award–winning best seller, The Corrections — has been anointed the latest Great American Novel.

Alexander Zaitchik deconstructs Glenn Beck It's hard to find words to describe how equally salacious and asinine it is that, on August 28, Fox News merrymaker Glenn Beck is hosting a Tea Party rally on the National Mall to coincide with the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.

Lies your teacher told you about anarchism Some marketing wizard gave Oxford-based historian Alex Butterworth's exhaustive history of the international anarchist movement a fun title it doesn't deserve.

Gail Caldwell remembers Caroline Knapp Before Caroline Knapp died of lung cancer — in 2002, at age 42 — she'd gone bestseller with the most private of torments: her alcoholism (in Drinking: A Love Story ) and her anorexia ( Appetites: Why Women Want ).

Less than Less Than Zero A quarter-century after the debut of Less Than Zero , in what amounts to a self-referential epilogue, Ellis's spoiled children have grown into spoiled adults, and the magnets in their moral compasses rest askew.

Joseph Mattson's wild ride Joseph Mattson's second Los Angeles–spawned novel is at least up front about where it's headed: "Here I was, doing ninety on the Santa Monica Freeway with a quart of whiskey shoved into my crotch and my dead neighbor in the trunk."

Alexander Zaitchik methodically unravels Glenn Beck's Christmas sweater Common Nonsense effectively and in detail confirms what thinking folks already knew but may have had difficulty explaining: Beck, equal parts Mormon and moron, is a towering ignoramus and a shameless bigot.

In memoriam Probably the echt moment for me in all the volumes of Harvey Pekar's American Splendor comics comes when the eternally bedraggled and grumpy Harvey receives a fresh package of review vinyl from Downbeat magazine and grumbles about getting yet another Sonny Stitt record.

From Neverwinter Nights to the Napoleonic War — with dragons With her sixth Temeraire fantasy, Tongues of Serpents , out this week, New York Times bestseller Naomi Novik takes on dragons, Peter Jackson, and the beginning of the end of a beloved series.